Cleveland Indians promote top prospect Bradley Zimmer to Double-A

The Indians have promoted top prospect Bradley Zimmer to the Double-A Akron RubberDucks. The Eastern League is currently on its All-Star break, so Zimmer will get Tuesday and Wednesday off, and make his debut Thursday night. The RubberDucks will be on a road trip for his first week, so his first game in Akron will be the following Thursday night (July 23). It's dollar beer and soda night, so if you're within an hour of Akron, you probably don't have anything better to do that evening than head to the ballpark!

(The game will apparently be nationally televised too, so maybe the rest of us will get to watch as well.)

Few (if any) prospects have seen their stock rise as much as Zimmer during the last three months, and this promotion is much deserved. Zimmer was tremendous in High-A, batting .305/.401/.488 (wRC+ of 160), with 16 doubles, 3 triples, 10 home runs, and 32 stolen bases in 37 attempts. He plays solid defense, splitting his time between right field and center. He played on the Carolina League All-Star team a couple weeks ago, and on Team USA in the MLB Futures Game on Sunday. He's earned this opportunity to move quickly up the ladder, clearly ready to face new challenges.

If he does well in Akron, he could find himself in Triple-A a year from now and in Cleveland by early 2017.